Newbury and West Berkshire Liberal Democrats

The Liberal Democrats exist to build and safeguard a fair, free and open society, in which we seek to balance the fundamental values of liberty, equality and community, and in which no-one shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity.

Council reserves have increased by an additional £561,000 taking the overall transformational reserve to over £1.2m following a meeting of West Berkshire Council. This extra money is left over from the sale of various Council owned assets. The Liberal Democrat Opposition at West Berkshire Council has urged the Council to use this money as quickly as possible to help residents who are paying more but getting less from their Conservative run council. Speaking at the meeting Cllr Lee Dillon Leader of the Opposition said "This money can be used to lessen the harm that the cuts are having. For example they could scrap the Green Bin Tax which is asking residents to find another£50 per household on top of the 6% Council Tax rise we have all recently been hit with" Newly elected Cllr Jeff Brooks commented after the meeting "This looks like the Tories trying to build up a war chest for the election next year. Residents and front line services need help now, not next year when the Tories hope it will help residents forgot the harm they have done through all these cuts".

On a bone chilling April day Christine Jardine MP drove from her Edinburgh constituency to West Berkshire to explain the impact of Brexit on the creative industries. In the UK these are worth £92 billion a year or 9% of the country's gross domestic product, and are closely connected to tourism. In her home town of Edinburgh the world famous arts festival brings in hundred of millions a year. Leaving the customs union will impose a huge bureaucratic overhead when moving performers and equipment between countries.

Former Councillor Jeff Brooks and

local campaigner David Lister Run

for Thatcham West by-election

The Liberal Democrats have selected Jeff Brooks as their District Council candidate and David Lister as their Town Council candidate for the Thatcham West by-election. Jeff is a local businessman who works out of Pear Tree Lane. Jeff served as a councillor in Thatcham between 1992 and 2015, and led the local Liberal Democrat council group until narrowly losing his seat in 2015.

Commenting, Jeff said:
"I'm disappointed the former Conservative Councillor for Thatcham West didn't take his role seriously enough to be present at the council for over 6 months. The fact that he has been ignoring his residents for more than half a year is are real slap in the face to the many voters who backed him in 2015.
"With that said, I'm really looking forward to meeting many more people in Thatcham West over the coming weeks. I want to talk to them about the real issues that matter, like cutting crime, tackling the horrendous state of our roads and campaigning against the astonishing rise in both council tax and parking charges.

"My team and I have already hit the ground running, talking to residents across Thatcham, who are giving us a clear idea of the things they want us to fight for locally.

"I also want to use this election to remind voters about the good things that the Liberal Democrats did when we ran the council.

"Whether it's the two libraries we built to improve the education in our area, the three new leisure centres we built to give our communities a hub, or introducing three mobile CCTV camera units and community wardens to West Berkshire, we fought hard for local people.

"Liberal Democrat influence made West Berkshire a safer, healthier and more ambitious place for our families to live, and as our Councillor I would make sure we don't let the Conservatives get away with neglecting residents.

"My record as a Councillor on tackling crime, standing up for local NHS services and investing in local education means I have the experience to stand up for local people on the issues that matter."

David Lister has lived in Thatcham for 18 years with his wife and two children. David has worked in Newbury and Thatcham for over 27 years with a background in Telecomms.

Alan Law has put his expected 'spin' on the story of how Sandleford came to be a Core Strategy housing site. But no matter how much you spin the contents of a dirty wash in a broken machine, the smell sticks!

In my note to Lib Dem colleagues after the Core Strategy was approved in 2012, I shared my impressions of the process: "Tremendously stressful for the Council's planners, great potential for corruption, very expensive for Council's taxpayers. So hard to be objective about 'sustainability' with so many factors to take account of - and such complex inter-relationships between them. Often the evidence base is laughably poor, yet we're told it is adequate for the purpose."

The next Newbury & HKL Branch Meeting will be on Tuesday 10 October 7:30pm at the Bowler's Arms, Wash Common (Falkland Cricket Club).
This will be an Open (Discussion) meeting of the Branch, and guests are welcome.

Liberal Democrats expressed astonishment, recently, following the publication of a joint statement by the CBI and TUC condemning the government for playing "human poker" with 4m UK and EU citizens, by failing to agree a right to remain.

Since the Brexit Referendum, a number of local residents with roots in mainland Europe have come forward to the local Liberal Democrat team in Newbury and West Berkshire to ask for advice and talk about their deep concern. Local Lib Dem Campaign Manager and member of the independent campaign group, West Berkshire Stronger Together, Sarah Lowes, said:

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